ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 12 2007

Australian company Iberian Resources to increase gold output in
Armenia almost 30 times in 2009

ArmInfo. From October 1, 2009, the Australian company Iberian
Resources is planning to increase the gold output in Armenia to 10 kg
per day as against the present 10 kg per month, Manvel Bagratyan, the
director of the company’s Armenian representative office, told
journalists during his visit to Meghri, Thursday.

According to him, the capacity will be increased due to a new plant
to be built in Meghri. At the moment, the present plant is processing
up to 7 thsd tons of ore per month, and the capacity of the new plant
will total 2 thsd tons of ore per day. As a result, the number of
employees (400 people) will double. M.Bagratyan noted that the
present plant is currently extracting gold by means of gravitation
method (mechanical way) and the extraction ratio totals 40%. The rest
of the ore is stored in tailing dumps until it its deeper procession
by means of new methods at the new plant. The old plant will be
closed, and the new one will extract gold by means of chemical method
(according to international technology) with use of cyanides, which
will contribute to growth of extraction ratio to 97%, M.Bagratyan
said.

M.Bagratyan said that the whole project is estimated at $65 mln,
$18-20 mln of them to be spent on construction of the new plant.
About $5-6 mln will be spent on supplementary exploration of gold
reserves. Investments will also be made in improving of
infrastructures and exploitation of the deposit. The plant will be
built on a waste plot of land, as the company tries to minimize the
possible ecological damage, he said.

M.Bagratyan pointed out that Iberian Resources has been exploiting
the Terterasar gold deposit in Meghri in the south of Armenia since
1995, as well as the polymetallic Lichkvaz-Tey deposit, which is 50
km away from the Terterasar deposit. According to preliminary data,
the Lichkvaz-Tey deposit contains 3,6 mln tons of ore and 17 tons of
gold with the average gold percentage being 5 g per ton. The
Terterasar deposit contains 100 thsd tons of ore and 3 tons of gold
with the average gold percentage being 10 g per ton. Both deposits
are polymetallic and also contain silver, lead, copper, however, the
company focused its attention on gold extraction, M.Bagratyan said.
He added that in 2008 supplementary exploration of gold reserves will
be carried out to re-estimate them.